BEISER, MOSES –
Austrian physician and philanthropist; born in Lemberg April 7, 1807; died in the same city Oct. 12, 1880. At twenty he entered the University of Vienna, and was graduated as M.D. in 1835. He began the practise of medicine as...

BEIT, ALFRED –
South African financier; born of a well-known Hamburg Jewish family in 1853. Beit went to Kimberley during the early days of the diamond "rush" (1875), and in company with Barney Barnato, Cecil Rhodes, H. J. King (Friedlander),...

BEJA –
City in Portugal that had, next to Santarem, the oldest Jewish community in Portugal. In a foro (charter) granted to the city of Beja toward the end of the twelfth century, it was enacted that every Jew passing through the town...

BEḲIIN –
A small town in Palestine, between Jabneh and Lydda. It is mentioned as the seat of a Talmudical school founded by R. Joshua ben Hananiah during the reign of Gamaliel II. (Bab. Sanh. 32b; Yer. Ḥag. i. 75d; Tosef., Soṭah, vii....

BEKOR SHOR, SAADIA –
Alleged son of Joseph Bekor Shor, and reputed anthor of a frequently published poem on the number of letters in the Bible. This poem is mentioned in a Masoretic work written in the fourteenth century in southern Arabia, and is...

BEKOROT –
The Mishnah. Name of the fourth treatise—according to the order of the Mishnah—of Seder Ḳodashim ("Holy Things"). The law concerning the first-born is repeated in the Pentateuch several times (Ex. xiii. 2, 11-15; xxxiv. 19-20;...

BEL AND THE DRAGON –
An Apocryphal tract, placed, in the Septuagint and Theodotion, among the additions to the Book of Daniel (see Apocrypha). It consists of two separate stories: one relating to Bel; the other, to the Dragon. In the former, Daniel,...

BELA –
1. An early king of Edom, having his royal seat at Dinhabah; son of Beor (Gen. xxxvi. 32, 33; I Chron. i. 43, 44). The name "Dinhabah" occurs in Palmyrene, Syria, and in Babylonia (Dillmann, "Genesis," ad loc.); and, since it...

BELAIS –
Rabbi and poet; born in Tunis 18th of Ab, 1773; died in London 1853. An eccentric personality, he had a curious career. First rabbi in Tunis and treasurer to the Bey, being pressed by his creditors, he left his home and went to...

BELASCO, ABRAHAM –
English pugilist; born in London, England, April 9, 1797; died there. Belasco entered the prize-ring in 1817, when he defeated Cribb's "Coal-Heaver," a pugilist patronized by Tom Cribb, champion of England (1805-20). During that...

BELASCO, DAVID –
American dramatist; born in San Francisco in 1858 of English parents. He is of the same family as the English actor known on the stage as David James. Belasco began his dramatic work in early youth. His boyhood was passed in...

BELASCO, ISRAEL –
English pugilist; born in London in 1800; a brother of the better-known Abraham or "Aby" Belasco. His first appearance in the prize-ring was on July 23, 1817, at Moulsey Heath, England, where after a battle of thirty rounds he...

BELFAST –
Chief town of the county of Antrim, province of Ulster, Ireland. The Jewish community—a comparatively prosperous one—numbering some 400 or 500 souls, is of recent date; its foundation being due to M. A. Jaffe, who arrived there...

BELGIUM –
One of the smaller states of western Europe. Under the Romans it formed one of the six provinces of ancient Gaul and bore the name "Gallia Belgica" (Gibbon, "Decline and Fall," vol. i. ch. i).Early Settlement. There are no...

BELGRADE –
Capital of the kingdom of Servia, situated at the confluence of the Save and the Danube. After Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent had captured the city from the Hungarians in 1522, the Turks remained in possession until 1867, when...

BELIAL –
Biblical Data: A term occurring often in the Old Testament and applied, as would seem from the context in I Sam. x. 27; II Sam. xvi. 7, xx. 1; II Chron. xiii. 7; Job xxxiv. 18, to any one opposing the established authority,...

BELIAS (BELIASH) –
Envoy from Morocco in 1608. He delivered to Maurice of Nassau, governor-general of the Netherlands, credentials from Muley Zaidan, sherif of Morocco, testifying Belias to be "ministrum Regiæ nostræ sublimis, qui negotiis ejus...

BELID, SON OF ALÈGRE –
Prominent French Jew; lived in Toulouse at the beginning of the thirteenth century. His name figures in many deeds of conveyance with the title "Dominus," which implies a superior rank. On several occasions his wife, termed...

BELILHOS, DANIEL –
Preacher and teacher at Amsterdam. He had a thorough knowledge of Biblical and rabbinical literature, was a facile Hebrew poet, taught the third class of the Talmud Torah, and officiated as preacher of the charitable societies...